Renewed Hope
by Mustard Yellow Sunshine
Summary: One-shot. Inuyasha's musings about Kikyo's supposed betrayal, and what changes occurred in his life after meeting Kagome and the others. InuKag


A/N Okay, this is my first non-angst one-shot, so it might suck. It's kind of pointless, and it recaps some things from the beginning of the show, but please stick it out and finish it. Oh, and don't forget to review!  
  
Disclaimer - I do not own Inuyasha  
  
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Betrayal.  
  
A feeling he knew only too well.  
  
That emotion had plagued his heart for fifty years. It had grown and festered into something so great, so consuming that it overtook his mind. All his thoughts, all his feelings were centered around this one emotion, this one act, for fifty years.  
  
Yes. He had fifty years to contemplate this act of betrayal, to grow to hate the one who had committed this crime.  
  
If you had seen him during those fifty years, you would think that he was asleep. Asleep, bound to a tree, with a magical arrow protruding from his chest.  
  
And in a sense, he had been asleep. His body had been asleep, but his mind was not. His mind had remained awake. He wished that his mind had been allowed to sleep, to have some semblance of peace. But his betrayer had cursed him. Cursed him to fifty years to contemplate it all. Cursed to remember the tenderness he and his betrayer had once shared. To remember the promise of a future they had once had together. Cursed to remember her betrayal, to remember the hate she held in her eyes as she released her arrow, shouting two words that shattered his heart before the arrow ever reached it. "Die Inuyasha!"  
  
The only thing he could think, after hearing those words, and right before the arrow pierced his chest, was why? Why had she done it? Why did she betray him? Hadn't they loved each other? Hadn't they had a promised future with one another?  
  
After the arrow had pinned him to the tree, and the Shikon Jewel had flown from his grasp; as his vision darkened and his mind became hazy, he managed to ask her the question that tormented his thoughts in those brief seconds of betrayal. "Kikyo, why? I thought we.." Only, she didn't answer. She left him to his slumber of fifty years, alone, only to die herself shortly after.  
  
But, he hadn't known that his slumber would last only fifty years. For his sleep was supposed to last an eternity. It was not her intention for him to ever be released. But released he was.  
  
He was released by the most unlikeliest of people. Released by a girl, who had been brought to him by fate, through an old well. A well that connected his time, to a time five hundred years in the future, her era. And this girl just happened to be the reincarnation of his betrayer.  
  
He had not been pleased when he awoke from his cursed sleep to find his betrayer, kneeling on the grass below him, shivering in fear, it seemed, of a centipede youkai that was trying to destroy her.  
  
He had called out to her to simply kill the youkai threat. Do it in like she had him. He had been greatly surprised to find that this Kikyo look a like was not Kikyo, but someone completely different. She had walked up to him in a huff, poking her finger in his chest saying she was not "This Kikyo person." She yelled that she was "Kagome! Ka-go-me!"  
  
The centipede youkai chose then to attack. It rapped itself around the girl and the pinned hanyou, trying to crush them. He barked at her to release the arrow binding him to the tree. He told her she'd die if she didn't release him, which she most likely would have. He had no way of knowing that the second she released him of the arrow, he would be bound to her. Bound to her, willingly.  
  
He had seen a brilliant flash of purplish light, and then he was free. He had wasted no time in destroying the lower level youkai. He knew that before it had been destroyed, the centipede demon had attacked the girl and her body had brought forth the Shikon Jewel. He witnessed her picking the jewel out of the remains of the dead centipede.  
  
He had attacked the girl, to get the jewel. He would use it to become a full fledged demon, and no longer would thoughts of his betrayer plague his mind. Only, things had not worked out as he had planned.  
  
An old hag, apparently Kikyo's aged sister, had placed a rosary around his neck. A binding rosary as he would later learn.  
  
It was humiliating, to say the least, to be thrown to the ground, face first, defenseless, by a single word from a human wench. IT was the reason he was unsuccessful in attaining the jewel. But he waited. He hung around the girl, just waiting for an opportunity to snatch the jewel, and kill her. And yet again, things did not go as planned.  
  
The jewel was shattered into thousands of little pieces. The end result of a little bout with a crow youkai.  
  
And so their journey began. Their journey to collect all the fragments of the jewel of four souls.  
  
Along this journey, he discovered that the girl, Kagome, certainly was not like Kikyo. This girl, no matter how loath he was to admit it, held a warmth in her that he rarely saw in his past love, his betrayer.  
  
The more time they spent together, the more she surprised him. The more courage she mustered, the more cheerfulness she presented, the more concern she showed for his safety, made him grow fonder of her with each passing day. Though he would never admit it, not even to himself.  
  
Kagome, had also grown quite fond of the half demon boy, whom she had freed from the tree. She didn't know it then, but she had freed his heart as well.  
  
Along their quest for the shards of the jewel, their bond with each other was tested with several occurrences.  
  
Inuyasha's old love, and the person he thought to have betrayed him was resurrected, to once again walk the earth, though she was still dead, living off of other souls. He learned that it had not been Kikyo whom had betrayed him, but a shape shifting demon known as Naraku, who had tricked them into betraying one another. He vowed then to find this Naraku, and destroy him in order to avenge Kikyo's murder.  
  
Also along their journey, they collected friends, that he would also become quite fond of. A Kitsune fox child named Shippo, a lecherous Monk called Miroku, and a Demon Exterminator known as Sango, along with her demon cat companion Kilala.  
  
They all shared a common bond. They all wished to destroy Naraku. Miroku to rid himself of his accursed wind tunnel and Sango to avenge the deaths of her fellow villagers, and to free her enslaved brother Kohaku.  
  
Inuyasha found himself becoming closer and closer to this little rag tag group. He protected them from attacks, fought alongside them, laughed with them, shared with them, argued with them quite often. And every day he found himself growing stronger feelings for Kagome.  
  
Growing feelings for her because of her warmth, because of her courage and kindness; her willingness to put others before herself, her fiery temper and spirit. She had an affect on him that not even Kikyo had had. Her presence calmed him, made his heart feel light, happy. Just her scent and knowing that she was near put him at ease. He had grown to trust her. Trust her with his feelings, with his life.  
  
He found himself thinking less and less about Kikyo and the future that was denied them, and more and more about Kagome, and what he would do about the two Mikos. What choice he knew he'd eventually have to make.  
  
For, a part of him still loved Kikyo, always would love Kikyo, but he couldn't deny his feelings for Kagome. He wanted to be with her, to have her near him, to protect her.  
  
At one point in time, after a run in with Kikyo, he had thought he'd made his final decision. He had told Kagome that he had chosen Kikyo, that he owed her his life, because she had died for him. And even then Kagome had surprised him by asking if she could still stay with him. That had swayed his mind considerably to reconsider his choice.  
  
For when he thought about it, Kagome, he knew, had feelings for him as well. She didn't really put much effort to hide that. Kagome not only accepted him for what he was, a hanyou, but liked him all the more for it. Kagome wanted him to live and to be happy, whereas Kikyo wanted his life, wanted him to suffer in hell with her.  
  
He had every intention of fulfilling his promise to Kikyo, but the more time he spent with Kagome, the closer he got to her, and she to him, the more his resolve to go to hell with Kikyo faded. And he dared to hope, that maybe, just maybe, there was hope for a future with Kagome after all.  
  
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A/N I originally intended for this to be a one-shot, but if I get enough reviews, I'll make it a two-shotter, possibly a three, or maybe even a four shotter.  
  
By the way, sorry if this fic in any way screwed up any facts from the show, but I've only watched Inuyasha as far as Cartoon Network will let me (Damn them!), so I've only seen up to episode forty eight (which by the way, royally pissed me off! When will Inuyasha learn that Kagome's the one for him, not Kikyo!). I do apologize if I got any facts from the show wrong. Another thing, will you please, please, please review? REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!! I'll love you forever and I'll give you a cookie! (author waves around bags full of cookies) You know you want some! 


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